Revisory Project Reflection
Posted by Vincent Woo
Demo movie [1MB]. Revisory: Summer 2006.
Description
Online discussion space on graphical assets or unpolished concepts through message threads and image manipulation tools. Revisory facilitates non-linear design processes between people in distributed teams to better explore brainstormed ideas.
Development
The primary goal of this project to begin an introductory exploration of various web scripting technologies:- Ruby on Rails
- HTML5 canvas element
- Prototype and script.aculo.us frameworks
- Javascript
The initial technical feasibility assessment concluded that the project was not commercially viable. A crucial factor was that the canvas element lacked current and future support by Internet Explorer. However, it was included in the latest version of Firefox, Safari, and Opera at the time. A decision was made to build a simple conceptional tech prototype as a learning experience through a project lifecycle.
Athestics is based on the simplicity of a blank canvas. The low key design encourages quick freeform sketches regardless of artistic ability. With its monochrome nature, the site design should fall back into the background and stand in contrast to the color possibilities of the user generated content.
End Results
Some testing was conducted near the end of this experiment. Revisory was utilized in highlighting the various design considerations given to a dynamic PDF document for review by a client. We found that keeping images updated and in context as per discussion point through appropriate zooming, panning, and highlighting held great value. The web app was relevant when visual communication was desired.
One area needing of improvement is in the generalized drawing tools. Most marks were kept simple to merely augment the existing image. Also, tools do not suggest efficient uses. Instead, future iterations should involve testing for more common behaviors to automate before any additional development starts.
Image used in demo is “More Fun Than Tekken” by Sevenflow and Kultdesign.
